Windows Phone 8 In Images

Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 platform marks a significant change for Microsoft's mobile strategy. It ties Windows Phone 8 together with its desktop and tablet platforms for a broad ecosystem play that should help Microsoft's mobile ambitions grow by leaps and bounds.

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Windows Phone 8 is the latest step in a years-long effort by Microsoft to unify its desktop, laptop, tablet, and smartphone platforms. The new operating system shares its core with Windows 8, which simplifies the story Microsoft needs to sell to developers, who are needed to support the platform and help it thrive.

Beyond just updating the core, Microsoft added long overdue support for new hardware parameters, a new Start screen, NFC and mobile payments, better multitasking, the desktop version of Internet Explorer 10, and a wide number of under-the-hood changes that should please developers.

Here are some images we captured of the new operating system during today's keynote. Microsoft played the new platform close to the chest, and wasn't allowing any sort of hands-on. We were able to look at the Start screen of a Lumia 900 running WP7.8, though. This is as close as anyone got to a "hands-on" at the event.

Windows Phone 8

Here's a really limited video view of the Windows Phone 7.8 Start screen, along with some miscellaneous commentary from Microsoft exec Greg Sullivan.